Inglorious Finance

What does Fiduciary Mean, and why does it matter?

Almost all our engagements and recommendations with clients are Fiduciary. Why does that matter to you? Ironically, many advisors were not required or did not follow a Fiduciary standard. Under current regulations, all advisors are now required to act as Fiduciaries for new recommendations in retirement accounts (for example IRA accounts). However, they were not required to do that until very recently, and your account might be grandfathered, with some specific exceptions, under the old, weaker, “suitability” rules.

We have seen situations where people have come to us to “fix the mess” from other advisors. In the last year we have seen prospective clients with portfolios that were inappropriate for a variety of reasons, including portfolios that were too aggressive, very illiquid, over-concentrated in certain sectors, or locked up in products with high surrender fees. None of these situations would have passed a fiduciary standard. Unfortunately, they were all sold by someone following the lower suitability standard. Read More

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